It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice, as the great man once said. And of late, the bicycle trade has acted as vehicle for an epidemic of amicability in the form of what we now normally know as the “collaboration”, a recent example being this concept-bike assembled under the joint auspices of Look and… Lacoste.

The general thinking behind such a venture is obvious, mirroring, as it does, the phenomenon of cultural exchange trips between schoolchildren from different countries, where it is hoped that young minds will be broadened, new friendships forged, et cetera, et cetera. Of course, children have a distinct notoriety for their sometimes unintentional, yet savage cruelty to each other, and any concrete benefits arising out of such exercises are for the interested parties not always immediately apparent.

But certainly, at the very least, both collaborators now each have a new potential constituency to canvas.

And as to the bike itself? A useful guiding principle for the appraisal of such a project’s end result could be to ask whether it is in some way more than the sum of its parts. We let our readers judge.

That said, it’s difficult to conceive of an instance where a bicycle’s aesthetic or functional value would not be enhanced by the deliberate placing of a Brooks atop seat post.